Unitarian Catechism 



BY 



M. J. SAVAGE 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY E. A. HORTON 



REVISED EDITION 



The world is saved by the breath of the school-children " 

Talmud 



& COPYRIGHT ■***- 

OCT 24 1890 \ J \^ 



BOSTON 
Press of Geo. H. Ellis, 141 Franklin Street 



1W& 

s* 



u>^ 



COPVRIGHT, 1S9O. 



GEO. H. ELLIS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The preface by Mr. Savage gives the reasons, clearly and 
concisely, why a book like this is needed. It answers a 
great demand, and it will supply a serious deficiency. 
Having had the privilege of reading the contents very 
thoroughly, I gladly record my satisfaction in the character 
of the work, my hope of its wide acceptance and use, my 
appreciation of the author's motives in preparing it. The 
questions and answers allow of supplementing, of individual 
handling, of personal direction. It is not a hard-and-fast 
production. There is a large liberty of detail, explanation 
and unfolding. The doctrinal positions are in accord with 
rational religion and liberal Christianity, the critical judg- 
ments are based on modern scholarship, and the great aim 
throughout is to assist an inquirer or pupil to a positive, 
permanent faith. If any one finds comments and criticisms 
which at first sight seem needless, let it be remembered 
that a Unitarian catechism must give reasons, point out 
errors, and trace causes : it cannot simply dogmatize. I 
am sure that in the true use of this book great gains will 
come to our Sunday-schools, to searchers after truth, to our 
cause. 

Edward A. Horton. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



This little Catechism has grown out of the needs of my 
own work. Fathers and mothers have said to me, " Our 
children are constantly asking us questions that we cannot 
answer." Perfectly natural ! Their reading and study have 
not been such as to make them familiar with the results 
of critical scholarship. The great modern revolution of 
thought is bewildering. This is an attempt to make the 
path of ascertained truth a little plainer. 

This is the call for help in the home. Besides this, a 
similar call has come from the Sunday-school. Multitudes 
of teachers have little time to consult libraries and study 
large works. This is an attempt, then, to help them, by 
putting in their hands, in brief compass, the principal things 
believed by Unitarians concerning the greatest subjects. 

The list of reference books that follows the questions and 
answers will enable those who wish to do so to go more 
deeply into the topics suggested. 

It is believed that this Catechism will be found adapted 
to any grade of scholars above the infant class, provided the 
teacher has some skill in the matter of interpretation. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

I. Religion, . 9 

II. God, . 14 

III. Man, * 20 

IV. Bible, 25 

V. Jesus, 33 

VI. Evil and Devil, 43 

VII. Salvation, 47 

VIII. Church, 51 

IX. Duty, 57 

X. Death and After, 61 



Appendix. 
Books of Reference, 65 



RELIGION. 

i. Question. How old is religion ? 
Answer. As old as man. 

2. Q. What is religion ? 

A. It is man's effort to get into right relations with 
God. 

3. Q. Analyze and define religion. 

A. Man feels himself surrounded by mysterious 
forces, so 

(1) He thinks out some idea or theory of these 
forces and of himself as related to them. 

(2) He has certain feelings and emotions in accord 
with his thoughts, such as awe, fear, reverence, love. 

(3) His thoughts and feelings tend to embody or 
incarnate themselves, to find some outward expres- 
sion; so there are altars, temples, sacrifices, script- 
ures, prayers, hymns, etc. The nature of these 
always depends on the nature of the thoughts and 
feelings. Man tries to do what he thinks his God 
wants him to do; that is, such things as will put him 
into favorable relations with his God. So we see, 
(as is said in answer 2), that religion is man's effort 
to get into right relations with God. 

4. Q. Why have there been so many religions ? 

A. Because men have had so many ways of thinking 



IO 

abcut and interpreting the world and its mysterious 
forces. 

5. Q. Have all the religions except Christianity 
been false ? 

A. No : none of them have been wholly false. 

6. Q. Is Christianity all true ? 

A. No. Though the best and highest of all relig- 
ions, it is as yet imperfect. 

7. Q. What would be a perfect religion? 

A. One perfectly true in its teachings and perfectly 
lived out in action. 

8. Q. When can we hope for such a religion ? 

A. Only when men become perfectly wise and good. 

9. Q. How can all the religions of the world be 
divided ? 

A. Into two classes, polytheistic and monotheistic. 

10. Q. What do these terms mean ? 

A. A polytheist (from two Greek words, 7ro\vs and 
Beos) is one who believes in many gods. A monotheist 
(also from two Greek words, (xovos and 6e6s) is one who 
believes in only one God. 

11. Q. Are there any monotheistic religions except 
Christianity ? 

A. Yes : two, the Jewish and the Mohammedan. 

12. Q. Why have men believed there were many 
gods ? 

A. Because they have thought the sun, the lightning, 
and a hundred other natural forces were separate and 
superhuman powers. They have also deified dead 
heroes and ancestors. 



I 3- Q- Why have they had such ideas ? 
A. Because they had not yet learned that all forces 
are manifestations of one power. 

14. Q. Why are we monotheists ? 

A. Because we have learned the unity of things ; 
that there is only one force, one law, in the universe. 

15. Q. Can man help being religious? 

A. In one sense, yes : he can disbelieve in or be 
opposed to religion. Still, he cannot escape the fact 
that he is essentially a religious being. 

16. Q. What do we mean by this? 

A. We have seen (in answer 3) that man is and must 
be in some way related to God, whether he is conscious 
of it or not. 

17. Q. Is religion important, then? 

A. It is the most important of all things. 

18. Q. Why? 

A. Because on a knowledge of the power mani- 
fested in the world about us, and on our being in right 
relations to it, depend all life, health, prosperity, and 
happiness. 

19. Q. Does it make any difference what religion a 
man believes in ? 

A. It makes all the difference in the world. 

20. Q. Why? 

A. Because all practice first or last depends on the- 
ory. If one has wrong thoughts and feelings, his ac- 
tion, which springs from these, cannot be right. 

21. Q. What if his action be not right ? 

A. Then he must fail of the highest well-being and 



12 

happiness. If, for instance, a man is to sail over the 
sea, a false theory of navigation may lead him to miss 
his harbor. So in all the work of life. 

22. Q. What are the most important things in relig- 
ion ? 

A. Right thoughts about God and man, and right 
feelings. 

23. Q. Why? 

A. Because these will lead to right action ; that is, 
to right relations with God. 

24. Q. Are religious ceremonies and institutions im- 
portant ? 

A. They are; but they are the product of religion, 
and not its cause. They need, then, to be rightly un- 
derstood and used. 

25. Q. Are they ever an evil ? 

A. Yes, when they stand in the way of growth or in 
place of the real religious life. 

26. Q. Give an example. 

A. Religious ceremonies are of value only as they 
help on religious life and growth. If, now, a person 
should allow himself to be unkind or dishonest, and 
think to make up for it by church attendance or 
prayers or Bible study, these good things might to him 
become an evil. 

27. Q. What religious ceremonies or institutions, 
then, are good? 

A. Any that truly express or help on the real relig- 
ious life. 

28. Q. What is the essence of true religion for us 
to-day ? 



J 3 

A. Love for God and man. 

29. Q. Why? 

A. Because, if these exist, they will find fitting cere- 
monies, create institutions, and deliver the world from 
evil. 

30. Q. If one is truly religious, what will be its effect 
on his life ? 

A. In politics, in society, in his home, and every- 
where, he will try to do what is for the happiness and 
good of all. 



II. 

GOD. 

i. Q. Have men always believed in God ? 

A. Not in the sense in which we believe to-day ; but 
they have always believed in the existence of certain 
invisible or spiritual powers. 

2. Q. What objects have they worshipped as gods ? 
A. First or last, almost everything, — the sun, moon, 

stars, rivers, trees, different kinds of animals, etc. 

3. Q. Have they really thought that these things 
were gods? 

A. Perhaps the ignorant have, but the more intelli- 
gent have looked upon them as the symbols or abiding 
places of the deity. 

4. Q. Has there been an element of truth in this ? 
A. Yes; for to-day we believe that all things are 

partial manifestations of the one infinite spirit and life. 

5. Q. Did all ancient peoples believe alike in this 
respect ? 

A. No : different families and tribes have had sepa- 
rate beliefs and different gods. 

6. Q. Did they believe these gods to be friendly to 
each other ? 

A. No : the gods hated each other as bitterly as did 
the people themselves. 



*5 

7. Q. Did they believe all these gods to be good ? 
A. No : they were as different in their tempers and 

characters as were the people who worshipped them. 

8. Q. What did these people think the gods were 
doing ? 

A. Not knowing anything about the order of nature, 
they attributed everything that happened to the agency 
of some one of these deities. All the good things 
were supposed to be caused by the good gods ; while 
all the evil were the work of bad spirits, or of the good 
spirits when they were angry. 

9. Q. Did the people worship only the good gods ? 
A. No : they worshipped the evil deities from fear, 

offering sacrifices in an attempt to buy off their enmity. 

10. Q. What was the origin of their belief in these 
bad gods ? 

A. It was their way of explaining the existence of 
suffering, disease, and death. 

11. Q. Does this explain the origin of all the evil 
deities ? 

A. No. When one nation conquered another, the 
gods of that nation also were supposed to be conquered ; 
but, hating their conquerors, they would constantly try 
to do them harm, and so came to be looked upon as 
evil spirits. 

12. Q. Did they at that time believe in any ruler of 
all the evil spirits, or the devil, in the modern sense of 
that word ? 

A. No : that idea was much later in its origin. 

13. Q. How did the belief in one God arise ? 

A. At first, people came to believe that they must 



i6 

worship only one God, though they did not doubt the 
existence of ether gods. Then they came to believe 
that theirs was the only real God. 

14. Q. Who were the first, as a people, to believe 
in only one God ? 

A. The Hebrews, a few hundred years before Christ. 

15. Q. Did they have the same idea of the one God 
that we have to-day ? 

A. No : it was far less spiritual and grand. 

16. Q. Where did they suppose this one God dwelt? 
A. In heaven, which they supposed to be just above 

the sky. 

17. Q. What did they think of this sky? 

A. The Old Testament speaks of it as a solid dome 
or firmament, just above which was heaven, where God 
was enthroned, surrounded by his angelic court. 

iS. Q. Did they think that God was a visible being, 

then ? 

A. Yes ; and that sometimes he had appeared to 
men on earth. 

19. Q. Where did they believe he was to be wor- 
shipped ? 

A. Chiefly in the Temple at Jerusalem, in which 
place they believed was the special manifestation of 

his presence. 

20. Q. What did Jesus teach in regard to this ? 

A. He taught that God was spirit, and could be 
found anywhere by those who worshipped him in spirit 

and in truth. 

21. Q. What have men thought about God since the 
time of Jesus ? 



*7 

A. Generally, they have thought of him under the 
figure of a man, and as enthroned in some special 
place. 

22. Q. Can we think of him in this way now ? 

A. No : since we have found out the nature of the 
universe, we can no longer think of God as wearing a 
bodily form. 

23. Q. Where is he, then ? 
A. He is everywhere. 

24. Q. How, then, can we think of him ? 

A. As the life, the spirit, the soul, of the universe. 

25. Q. Is not this pantheism ? 

A. No. Pantheism teaches that all things are God : 
this teaches that God is in and through, and so the 
life of, all things. 

26. Q. Can this be illustrated in any way to make 
it plainer? 

A. Yes : as an illustration, we may think of God as 
related to the universe in a similar way to that in 
which our souls are related to our bodies. 

27. Q. Where is the soul in the body? 
A. It is everywhere. 

28. Q. Shall we ever see God ? 

A. Only as we see him now, as manifested in the 
life of the universe. 

29. Q. Is this really seeing him at all ? 

A. Yes : we see him just as truly as we see a friend. 
No one ever saw the soul : we only see the manifesta- 
tion of its activity through the body. In the same 
way precisely we see the manifestation of God through 
the outer world. 



i8 

30. Q. Is God personal ? 

A. Yes ; but not in the sense in which we speak of 
man as personal. 

31. Q. Why? 

A. Because we connect with man's personality the 
thoughts of a beginning and an end, and of an outlined 
physical being. 

32. Q. In what does personality consist ? 

A. Essentially in self-consciousness, and in this, 
which is the highest sense, we believe that God is 
personal. 

33. Q. May we think of God as our Father ? 

A. We may. We, as finite spirits, are children of 
the Infinite Spirit. 

34. Q. Is he near to us ? 

A. Nearer than the breath we breathe ; for " in him 
we live and move and have our being." 

35. Q. Will he help us? 

A. He does help us always. Since all the forces of 
the world are his activity, all we do is by the use of his 
power. 

36. Q. Is there any idolatry still in Christendom ? 
A. Yes ; for an image of God may be in the mind as 

well as made out of stone or wood. 

37. Q. Can we have a perfect thought of God ? 

A. No ; for the finite cannot grasp the infinite. We 
must think as truly and nobly as we can. 

38. Q. Where are God's laws to be found? 
A. They are the laws of nature and of life. 



J 9 

39. Q. Are they in any one book or Church ? 

A. No j and many so-called laws of God are only 
the imaginations of man. 

40. Q. What, then, are his laws ? 

A. The real laws of life, of goodness, and of truth. 



III. 

MAN. 

i. Q. How long has the earth existed ? 
A. Probably millions of years. 

2. Q. Has it always been inhabited ? 

A. No : it was a very long time before it became 
cool enough for living forms. 

3. Q. Did man appear at first ? 

A. No : the lowest forms of life appeared first in the 
waters. 

4. Q. What next? 

A. Next came the fishes, then the reptiles, then the 
birds, and then the different kinds of animals. 

5. Q. How long ago did man appear ? 

A. We cannot tell exactly. The best authorities 
think it was as much as 150,000 years ago, and perhaps 
300,000. 

6. Q. Was he specially created at that time ? 

A. No : he grew or was developed from lower forms. 

7. Q. Was he perfect when he first appeared ? 
A No : He was but little above the animals. 

8. Q. How much has he grown and changed since 
then ? 

A. So much that the highest man of to-day is more 
unlike the first man than he was unlike the highest 
animal. 



9. Q. Do we, then, believe in "the fall of man"? 
A. No; for he was never so high as to-day. It is 

the ascent of man that we believe in. 

10. Q. What, then, is the difference between the 
animals and man ? 

A. The differences are of two sorts, difference in 
degree and difference in kind. 

it. Q. What do we mean by difference in degree? 
A. Both are animals; but man is a higher kind of 
animal. 

12. Q. Explain how. 

A. In the first place, as to his body. He stands 
erect, and has hands instead of having four feet. Then 
he has a much larger brain. 

J 3- Q' What of mental differences ? 

A. Animals think, reason, dream, remember, and 
in many ways show remarkable powers of mind. But 
men are much superior to them in all these things. 

14. Q. What is meant by saying they are different 
in kind ? 

A. While man is an animal, he is also something 
more, so that he is a different kind of being. 

15. Q. Explain this. 

A. A dog or a horse is conscious, but he is not self- 
conscious. That is, he does not think " I." He 
never thinks, "I am a horse or a dog, and so I am 
different from other kinds of animals." 

16. Q. Explain still further. 

A. While animals may fear or love a master and 
even show shame when they have displeased him, there 
is no reason to think they have a moral nature. 



22 

Neither do they possess a religious nature to make 
them think of and try to find God as man does. 

17. Q. Is there any other great difference? 

A. Yes : man has an ideal of a better condition, of 
a higher kind of life, and so is capable of progress. 
Animals do not have this. 

18. Q. What other great difference is there ? 

A. Man has the power- of speech. And he can 
write down and preserve his thoughts and all he has 
learned and done. So knowledge is kept and handed 
on from age to age. 

19. Q. Was speech an invention ? 

A. It was partly an invention and partly a growth. 

20. Q. What was the condition of the first men ? 

A. They were naked barbarians in the woods. 
They lived on berries, nuts, fruits, and such animals 
and fishes as they could capture. 

21. Q. Tell something more about them. 

A. They had no houses, no fire, no weapons or 
tools. 

22. Q. How did they progress out of this condition ? 
A. They discovered fire, and then they gradually 

learned how to make themselves huts, boats, weapons, 
and tools. When they found the metals, and learned 
how to smelt copper and iron, they made very rapid 
advances. 

23. Q. Are there any specimens of the primitive 
men alive now ? 

A. No ; for the lowest savages are very much above 
the condition of the first men. 



23 

24. Q. Who were the first peoples to become what 
we call civilized ? 

A. The oldest civilizations that we know of were in 
Egypt and Assyria. But there are remains of civili- 
zations, perhaps as old, in Central America and in 
Mexico. 

25. Q. Of what kind were the oldest societies? 

A. They were tribes of people supposed to be bound 
together by ties of kinship. 

26. Q. When did any people first become organized 
on a territorial basis ? 

A. The ancient Athenians, under Cleisthenes, about 
500 years before Christ. 

27. Q. How did the ancient peoples write? 

A. They had what is called picture-writing, or hiero- 
glyphs. 

28. Q. Who first used an alphabet ? 
A. The Phoenicians. 

29. Q. What has helped the modern world to ad- 
vance so much more rapidly than the ancient ? 

A. Discoveries such as the mariner's compass, the 
art of printing, gunpowder, the steam-engine, the 
telegraph, etc. 

30. Q. What other advances has man made ? 

A. In mental and moral growth he has kept pace 
with his physical discoveries. 

31. Q. Has he reached the end ? 

A. No : he is only beginning to get control of him- 
self and of the forces of the earth. 

32. Q. What may we hope for, then, in the future ? 



24 

A. A condition of things in which hunger and dis- 
ease, vice and crime, shall have been outgrown and 
left behind. 

33. Q. How is this to be reached ? 

A. By finding out the laws of God and learning to 
obey them. 

34. Q. What, then, is our highest duty? 

A. To do what little we can to bring about this con- 
dition of things. 

35. Q. Is man made in the image of God? 

A. Yes; for, if not, he could neither know nor love 
nor serve him. 

36. Q. What do we mean by his being in God's 
image ? 

A. He is God's child, and so like him mentally and 
morally as well as spiritually. 

37. Q. What, then, ought to be his life ? 

A. It ought to be god-like, growing ever truer and 
nobler. 

38. Q. Is such a life natural to man ? 

A. It is the only life that is natural, and so true to 
man's best possibilities. 



IV. 

BIBLE. 

i . Q. What is the Bible ? 

A. It is the name given to the books of the Old 
and New Testaments when spoken of as a whole. 

2. Q. Where does the word "Bible" come from? 
A. The Greek. The books were first spoken of as 

ra j3t/3\ta, the books, and then as rbv j3l(3\lov, the book. 

3. Q. What are these books ? 

A. They comprise the most important parts of the 
religious writings of the Hebrews and the early Chris- 
tians. 

4. Q. Why are they all together in one volume ? 

A. For convenience, and because they have been 
supposed together to make up one revelation. 

5. Q. How do they happen to be divided into chap- 
ters and verses ? 

A. This is the work of publishers, and is only for 
convenience of reference. 

6. Q. Where did the running titles and chapter head- 
ings come from ? 

A. These are the work of English editors, and are 
of no authority. 

7. Q. Where did our ordinary English Bible come 
from ? 

A. It was translated into English, under King 
James, early in the seventeenth century. 



8. Q. Out of what languages was it translated ? 

A. The New Testament out of Greek and the Old 
Testament out of Hebrew, with the exception of a few 
passages, which were Aramaic. 

9. Q. Did the translators have the original books 
just as they were first written ? 

A. No : only copies made hundreds of years after- 
wards. 

10. Q. How were these copies made ? 

A. They were written by hand, many of them by the 
old monks in monasteries. 

11. Q. How do we know they were correct copies? 
A. We know that they were not. 

12. Q. What changes had been made ? 

A. The copyists had made a great many changes in 
transcribing. 

13. Q. How important are these changes ? 

A. Generally, they are slight. But, in some cases, 
they amount to whole verses or parts of chapters. 

14. Q. Were any of these changes made on purpose ? 
A. There is good reason to think that some of them 

were. 

15. Q. Give an illustration. 

A. 1 John v. 7 and Matt. xvi. 18. 

16. Q. Are we sure, then, of the verbal accuracy of 
the Bible ? 

A. No : we are not. 

17. Q, Do these changes make us doubtful of its 
main teachings ? 

A. No ; for we now know very nearly what the 
changes have been. 



2 7 

i8. Q. How many books are there in the Bible ? 
A. 66 : 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the 

New. 

19. Q. Are the books in the same order in the Eng- 
lish Bible that they were in the Hebrew ? 

A. No : the order has been changed. 

20. Q. Is the order, in either of them, the order in 
which they were written, or of the events related ? 

A. No : it is not. 

21. Q. How did the Jews divide the books ? 

A. Into three groups, — the Law, the Prophets, and 
the Writings. 

22. Q. What did these include ? 

A. The Law included the Pentateuch, Joshua, and 
Judges ; the Prophets included the books we know now 
by that name, and the Writings all the rest. 

23. Q. What do we know about the authorship of 
these books ? 

A. Very little. As to most of them, we do not know 
who wrote them, nor when, nor where they were written. 

24. Q. How old are they ? 

A. A few fragments date back to perhaps 1300 B.C., 
but the oldest complete book to not more than 800 

B.C. 

25. Q. Of what date is that part of the Old Testa- 
ment which was last written ? 

A. Not far from 170 B.C. 

26. Q. How did the Hebrews regard these books? 
A. They came to look upon them as an inspired and 

infallible revelation from God. 



28 

27. Q. Were these books the only Jewish writings ? 
A. No : many books have been lost. 

28. Q. Are there any others that have been kept ? 
A. Yes : there are fourteen others, which are called 

the Apocrypha. 

29. Q. Why are those not in the Bible ? 

A. Because the Jewish nation was scattered before 
they had become old enough to be regarded as sacred. 

30. Q. Have they ever been included in the Bible? 
A. Yes, by the Catholics; and they are often 

printed between the Old and New Testaments in our 
Protestant Bibles. 

31. Q. Are any of these as good as the books of the 
Old Testament? 

A. Yes : a few of them are better than many that 
are included in the Bible. 

32. Q. Are there any other old Jewish books ? 

A. Yes : such as the Book of Enoch, which is quoted 
in the Epistle of Jude. 

33. Q. Name some as good as those in the Old 
Testament. 

A. Ecclesiasticus and The Wisdom of Solomon. 

34. Q. Of what is the New Testament composed ?^ 
A. Of four biographies of Jesus, one book of his- 
tory, twenty-one letters, and one vision, called the 
Apocalypse,— twenty-seven in all. 

35. Q. When were these written? 

A. Probably from about 55 a.d. to 170 a.d. 

36. Q. Are they arranged in chronological order ? 
A. No. 



2 9 

37- Q> Which are oldest ? 

A. The five or six genuine letters of Paul. 

3&. Q. Who wrote the rest of the letters ? 

A. With the exception of James, we do not know. 

39. Q. Were the Gospels written by the men whose 
names they bear ? 

A. They were not. 

40. Q. Which is the oldest ? 
A. Mark. 

41. Q. How were the first three written ? 

A. Somewhere near the year 70 or 80 a.d. they 
were written out from notes, memorabilia, etc. Up 
to that time, the story had only been repeated from 
memory. 

42. Q. How could it be remembered so long ? 

A. There were persons called catechists, or teachers, 
who made it their business to learn and repeat the 
story. 

43. Q. Did they remember it with perfect accuracy ? 
A. No; for they often differ, and sometimes contra- 
dict each other. 

44. Q. Who wrote the Fourth Gospel ? 

A. Probably a presbyter by the name of John. 

45. Q. Are these twenty-seven books all that were 
written ? 

A. No : many other gospels, letters, and visions were 
written. 

46. Q. What became of them ? 

A. Many were lost ; and many are still kept, and are 
called the Apocryphal New Testament. 



3° 

47- (?• Who decided what books should make up the 
New Testament ? 

A. The general opinion and consent of the churches. 

48. Q. Are there any among those left out as good 
as those that were included? 

A. Perhaps one or two. 

49. Q. Name one. 

A. The Shepherd of Hermas. This was included in 
the New Testament at one time. 

50. Q. How has the Church in general regarded the 
Bible as a whole ? 

A. As being an inspired and infallible revelation 

from God. 

51. Q. Can we so regard it to-day ? 

A. No ; for it contains errors, and we know God 
could not make mistakes. 

52. Q. What kind of mistakes are there? 

A. In some places, it teaches what now we know to 
be immoral. It also makes mistakes in history and in 
science. It also contradicts itself in many places. 

53. Q. What do we mean by mistakes in science? 
A. Mistakes in astronomy, geology, etc. 

54. Q. Give an example. 

A. The Jews thought the earth was flat, and that 
the sky was a solid dome; also, that the sun and stars 
were made only to give us light. 

55- Q- Give another example. 
A. The creation story. 

56. Q. What, then, is the Bible ? 

A. It is a record of the religious life and teachings 



3i 

of the ancient Hebrews and of the early Christian 
Churches. 

57. Q. How does it compare with the religious 
books of other peoples ? 

A. It is the grandest one of them all. 

58. Q. Does it contain God's word ? 

A. Yes ; but only in part and mixed with many 
errors. 

59. Q. What is God's perfect word ? 
A. All truth. 

60. Q, Is revelation finished ? 

A. No : every new truth is a new revelation. 

61. Q. Does God speak to the world now ? 

A. Yes : to all who listen and try to understand 
him. 

62. Q. If the Bible is not perfect, why should we 
study it ? 

A. In the first place, the literature and art of the 
world are full of it. We need to be familiar with it so 
as to understand them. 

63. Q. Why else? 

A. Because it teaches us how religion grows and 
what men have felt and thought about it in the past. 

64. Q. Is there any other reason ? 

A. Yes : rightly used, it will help our personal relig- 
ious lives more than any other one book. 

65. Q. How should we study it ? 

A. With our eyes open to its real nature. 

66. Q. What is its real nature? 

A. It is a human book. In some parts, its teaching 



32 

is barbarous and cruel, being the work of a barbarous 
age. It is full of magic and miracle. Most of its 
writers knew little of God's real way of governing the 
world. 

67. Q. Wherein, then, is its great value ? 

A. It shows the growth of religious ideas from bar- 
barism up to the sweet spiritual teaching of Jesus. 

68. Q. What are the most valuable parts of the 

Bible? 

A. Those that tell us of the life and teachings of 

Jesus. 

69. Q. How do they help us ? 

A. By showing us that a life like his is possible, and 
by winning us to love it. 



JESUS. 

i. Q. In what year was Jesus born? 
A. About the year 5 or 4 b.c. 

2. Q. How could the Christ be born before Christ? 
A. The date was not fixed at the time, and many 

years later this mistake was made. 

3. Q. What time in the year was he born ? 
A. We do not know. 

4. Q. Was he not born on Christmas Day ? 

A. No : this date was not fixed until four or five 
hundred years after Jesus was born. 

5. Q. Why was this date chosen for celebrating his 
birth ? 

A. Because it was already a popular festival day. 

6. Q. What kind of day was it ? 

A. Much like our present Christmas. It was the 
birthday of the Sun-god, and so of the year. 

7. Q. What did people do on that day? 

A. They exchanged gifts, and made it a day of 
human equality and good-will. Slaves were feasted 
and waited on by their masters. 

8. Q. Where was Jesus born ? 

A. In Nazareth, a small hill-town in Galilee. 



34 

9. Q. Why do Matthew and Luke, then, say he was 
born in Bethlehem ? 

A. These stories about his birth are very late and 
of no authority. The Jews expected their Messiah to 
be born in Bethlehem; so, after people came to be- 
lieve that Jesus was the Messiah, this belief grew up. 

10. Q. Who were his parents ? 
A. Joseph and Mary. 

ii. Q. What kind of persons were they? 
A. Simple peasant people. His father was a car- 
penter. 

12. Q. Had he brothers or sisters? 

A. Yes : he was one of a large family. 

13. Q. What do we know of his childhood? 

A. Almost nothing, except as we may find out what 
a Jewish childhood was in those days. 

14. Q. What did a Jewish child learn ? 

A. He learned in the synagogue to recite the wise 
sayings of the Old Testament and of the Fathers. 

15. Q. What language did he speak ? 
A. Aramaic. 

16. Q. Did he learn any science or philosophy ? 

A. No : his people at that time had no knowledge 
of science, and did not think of the world as under 
natural law. 

17. Q. Do his biographers tell us nothing about his 
childhood ? 

A. There is just one story in Luke. This tells us 
how his parents took him to Jerusalem to the temple 
when he was twelve years old. 



35 

1 8. Q. Why did they take him there then ? 

A. It was a Jewish custom, — a little like confirma- 
tion in some modern churches. 

19. Q. How does he appear in this story ? 

A. As a precocious child, but loving and obedient. 

20. Q, What does Luke say of him on his return 
home ? 

A. He "increased in wisdom and in stature, and in 
favor with God and man." 

21. Q. When do we next see him ? 

A. At about the age of thirty, when he comes to 
John the Baptist to be baptized. 

22. Q. What then does he do? 

A. After John's imprisonment, he begins to travel 
over the country preaching, and announcing that the 
kingdom of God is at hand. 

2 3- Q- What was meant by " the kingdom of God" ? 

A. The Jews had come to believe that God was 
going to set up, by miracle and suddenly, a perfect 
condition of things on earth. 

24. Q. Did Jesus travel alone ? 

A. No: he chose twelve friends, called "apostles," 
some of whom were generally with him. 

25. Q. How did they live ? 

A. They were entertained by friends as they trav- 
elled over the country. 

26. Q. Was this a strange thing to do ? 

A. No : in that age, country, and climate it was sim- 
ple and natural. 



36 

27. Q. Can we follow the order of his journeys and 
teachings ? 

A. No ; for the stories are not clear. 

28. Q. How long was his ministry ? 

A. Probably only a little over a year ; though John 
seems to make it three and a half. There was even a 
later tradition that said he lived to be fifty years old. 

29. Q. Into what parts may his public life be di- 
vided ? 

A. Into two, his work in Galilee and in Judea. 

30. Q. Where did he preach ? 

A. On the lake-side, from a boat, on hill-slopes, or 
in any convenient place. 

31. Q. How did he preach ? 

A. In a simple, conversational way, drawing his les- 
sons from flowers, leaven, the farmer's work, as well as 
from Scripture. 

32. Q. Did he deliver any long sermons? 

A. Probably not. The Sermon on the Mount was 
not all spoken at any one time or place. 

^. Q. How else did he teach ? 

A. Often in parables ; that is, by telling stories with 
a lesson that people would remember. 

34. Q. How was he received ? 

A. The people were glad to hear him. 

35. Q. How did he differ from common teachers . 
A. They were generally dry and formal in their 

methods. 

36. Q. What did they teach ? 

A. The law of Moses and the traditions. 



37 

37. Q. What did he teach ? 

A. God's love and human duty. 

38. Q. Whom did he choose for associates ? 
A. Generally the common people. 

39. Q. What was his disposition ? 

A. He was tender and loving, always ready to help 
and comfort. 

40. Q. Was he ever severe ? 

A. Only towards people who were hard and proud 
and who looked down on their fellow-men. 

41. Q. Who did he say were fit for the kingdom of 
God? 

A. Those who left off their wrong-doing, and were 
loving and helpful like himself. 

42. Q. Did he make any other condition ? 
A. No : he did not. 

43- Q- Who represented the state religion of his 
time ? 

A. The Priests, the Pharisees, and the Scribes. 

44. Q. Did they like him ? 
A. No. 

45- <2- Why? 

A. Because he disregarded their rules and customs, 
saying, if people were only loving and helpful, it did not 
matter about these other things. 

46. Q. Why did this trouble them ? 

A. Because they believed God had commanded 
them to keep up the temple, the law, and all their 
ceremonies ; and also because, if he had his way, their 
business and importance would be gone. 



38 

47- Q- What did they do about it ? 

A. They stirred up the people against him, and made 
them believe he was an enemy of God, and so their 
enemy. 

48. Q. What else did they do ? 

A. They made the Roman authorities who then 
governed the country believe that he was getting up a 
rebellion. 

49. Q. Had there been rebellions before ? 

A. Yes, many ; so that the Romans were sensitive 
on the subject. 

50. Q. Was there any ground for these charges ? 

A. None, except that he preached the kingdom of 
God. But they saw that this did threaten their power 
over the people ; and they made the Romans suspi- 
cious. 

51. Q. When did they mature their plans ? 

A. At the great annual feast, when they knew Jesus 
would be in Jerusalem. 

52. Q. How did they carry them out ? 

A. They hired Judas, one of his apostles, to betray 
Jesus into their hands. 

53. Q. What then did they do ? 

A. They tried him before the Sanhedrin, the great 
Jewish court. 

54. Q. Did they prove their charges ? 

A. It mattered little to them whether they did or 
not. They were determined to get rid of him. 

55. Q. Could they put him to death? 

A. No : they had to get the consent of Pilate, the 
Roman ruler. 



39 

56. Q. Did Pilate think him guilty ? 

A. Probably not; but it made little difference to 
him, so that he satisfied the people. 

57. Q. What then did they do with Jesus ? 

A. They put a crown of thorns on his head, a purple 
robe on his shoulders, and a reed in his hand, because 
they said he claimed to be a king; for crown, robe, and 
sceptre were symbols of royalty. 

58. Q. Did he claim to be king ? 

A. Only by a figure of speech, to be a king of the 
truth. 

59. Q. What next? 

A. They crucified him on a little hill outside the city 
walls. 

60. Q. Where was he buried ? 

A. In a new tomb, hewn out of the rock, in a garden 
belonging to Joseph of Arimathea. 

61. Q. Did he rise again from the dead? 

A. There is no reason to suppose his body lived again. 

62. Q. Why did the disciples, then, claim that they 
^aw him after his death ? 

A. Perhaps they did see him in his spiritual body, 

63- Q* On what day is his supposed resurrection 
celebrated ? 

A. On Easter Day. 

64. Q. Why? 

A. Because, like Christmas, this had been long cele- 
brated in a similar way. 

65. Q. What was meant by this day before it be- 
came a Christian festival ? 



4° 

A. It was celebrated as the day of the spring's com- 
ing to life after the death of the winter. 

66. Q. When did the stories of the miraculous birth 
and resurrection of Jesus grow up. 

A. Long after his death. 

67. Q. Did Jesus work miracles? 

A. Not in the sense of disregarding natural laws. 

68. Q. Did he possess any wonderful powers ? 

A. Probably he did. especially in the soothing and 
cure of those afflicted with nervous diseases. 

69. Q. Have others had similar powers ? 
A. Yes : many others. 

70. Q. How, then, did these stories grow up? 

A. As in the case of Gautama and a great many 
others. People have always told wonderful stories of 
the wonderful men they have come to admire and wor- 
ship. 

71. Q. Have stories of a virgin birth and miracu- 
lous powers been told of others ? 

A. Yes : of many others. They were told of Gau- 
tama, of Plato, of Caesar, of Apcllonius, and also of 
many Catholic saints. 

72. Q. Did the people of those days care for proof ? 
A. No : they easily believed any story that pleased 

them. 

73- <?• Why? 

A. Because they had not yet learned of the order 
and law of the natural world. 

74. Q. What kind of man was Jesus ? 
A. He was the great radical reformer and leader of 
his age. 



4* 

75- Q- What was his teaching? 

A. He taught very little that was wholly new, but 
he taught with such simplicity and force as to make a 
great impression. 

76. Q. What is his rank among men? 

A. He is the greatest religious leader of the world. 

77. Q. What was his character? 

A. He was so full of the spirit and love of God, and 
he so loved men, that he seems to us to have been 
very nearly perfect. 

78. Q. Did he establish any church ? 

A. He did not. If correctly reported, he expected 
to return soon after his death, and with the angels as 
escort to establish the kingdom of God on earth. 

79. Q. Did Jesus teach science or politics or help 
solve great social questions ? 

A. No : he shared the belief of his age and his 
people concerning all such matters. 

80. Q. What was that ? 

A. That at " the end of the age " God would sud- 
denly and miraculously establish his kingdom. 

81. Q. Did he help the world, then, to settle any 
great intellectual problem? 

A. No : his greatness was that of character and 
spiritual insight. 

82. Q. Should we speak of him as Jesus, or Christ? 
A. As Jesus. The Christ, or the Messiah, is the 

name of the title that was given him, not his personal 
name. 

83. Q. What is Jesus to us to-day ? 

A. Our great spiritual inspiration and example. 



42 

84. <2- In what sense is he our Saviour ? 

A. As he helps us to love God and man, and so to 
try to be like him. 

85. Q. Is it enough to know the right way ? 

A. No : we must love it, so as to be willing to work 
or even die for it. 

86. Q. Why does Jesus say that love is the most 
important of all things ? 

A. Because love is the great motive power that leads 
to the doing of all great and good things. 

87. Q. Shall we call ourselves Christians, then ? 

A. Yes : if we mean by it that we are followers of 
Jesus' spirit of love to God and man. 



VI. 

EVIL AND DEVIL. 

i. Q. What do we mean by evil ? 
A. All wrong and suffering. 

2. Q. What is the old belief about these ? 
A. That they did not exist at first. 

3. Q. How has their origin been explained ? 
A. As the result of the fall of man. 

4. Q. What is the story ? 

A. That man was made perfect and placed in the 
Garden of Eden. 

5. Q. How was he said to have lost it ? 

A. It is said that the devil, in the form of a serpent, 
tempted Eve. 

6. Q. Then what is said to have happened ? 

A. Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden. 
Then people began to suffer and die. 

7. Q. Who was this devil ? 

A. At first, they said, he was a bright archangel ; 
that is, an angel-leader. 

8. Q. How did he come to be the devil ? 

A. It was said he rebelled against God in heaven, 
and was cast down to hell. 

9. Q. Why did he tempt Eve ? 

A. It was believed he did it to spite God and injure 
his new-made world. 



44 

io. Q. Did the Jews at first believe in the devil ? 
A. No. 

ii. Q. When did they begin to believe in him ? 
A. They seem to have borrowed the idea from the 
Persians during their captivity, about 550 B.C. 

12. Q. Why did they accept this idea? 

A. Because they came to think the good God could 
not have permitted evil, therefore that some evil being 
must have caused it. 

13. Q. Is this a satisfactory explanation ? 

A. No ; for, if God could not permit evil, he would 
not have permitted the devil to exist. 

14. Q. Is there any reason for believing in the 
existence of the devil ? 

A. No, none whatever. The stories about him do 
not prove his existence any more than the stories 
about Hercules prove his. 

15. Q. What have people believed about the devil? 
A. That he and his wicked angels were everywhere, 

doing all sorts of mischief. 

16. Q. What kinds of mischief ? 

A. Such as causing sickness and storms. 

17. Q. Have they thought that people could have 
anything to do with the devil ? 

A. Yes : as in the case of Faust, and the witches. 
They thought men and women could make bargains 
with him, and that sometimes they sold their souls to 
him for wealth or power. 

18. Q. Is evil a thing that came into the world ? 
A. No. 



45 

i9- Q. What is it ? 

A. It is simply the result of not knowing and keep- 
ing God's laws. 

20. Q. How long has it existed ? 
A. Since life existed on earth. 

21. Q. What is pain ? 

A. A feeling we do not like. 

22. (2. What is the cause of it ? 

A. Any creature that can feel at all must be liable 
to feel pain as well as pleasure. And pain is the 
result of a broken law of God. 

2 3- Q> If people were perfect, would there be pain ? 

A. No ; or, at any rate, very little. If they knew 

all God's laws, and kept them, they would not suffer. 

24. Q. Does pain, then, prove that a person is 
wicked ? 

A. By no means. For we may break God's laws 
without knowing it, or other people may put us in 
positions where we have to suffer. 

25. Q. Is death an evil ? 

A. No : a premature or cruel death may be. 

26. Q. Was death caused by sin ? 

A. No : it is as natural to die as to be born. 

27. Q. What are the greatest evils of the world ? 
A. The wrongs men do to one another. 

28. Q. Do these need to exist ? 

A. No : they exist because people are ignorant, pas- 
sionate, and selfish. 

29. Q. Is a person ever better off for injuring an- 
other ? 



4 6 

A. No : selfishness is always foolish as well as 
wrong. 

30. Q. What is selfishness ? 

A. Being willing to get something we wish at the ex- 
pense of the welfare or happiness of somebody else. 

31. Q. Is it wrong to wish for all good things ? 

A. No : it is wrong only when you are willing to 
hurt some other person in getting them ? 

32. Q. Is it God's will that men should suffer? 
A. No. 

33- Q- Why, then, does he not prevent it? 
A. We can learn good and evil only by experience ; 
therefore God must permit evil, even if we suffer. 

34. Q. Must people always suffer ? 

A. Only until they learn how to live rightly. 

35. Q. Do suffering and death, then, make it impossi- 
ble to believe in the goodness of God ? 

A. No : not if we understand them and their use. 

36. Q. Are they, then, any sign that God is angry 
with us? 

A. No : God is never angry with anybody. 

37. Q. What, then, are the causes of all evil ? 
A. Ignorance, passion, and folly. 

38. Q. Do we need any devil, then, to explain them ? 
A. No. 

39. Q. God, then, does not wish us to suffer ? 

A. No : he wishes us to learn the right way, and es- 
cape all evil. 



VII. 

SALVATION. 

i. Q. What is salvation? 

A. It is right relation to God and man. 

2. Q. What have the "Orthodox" Churches taught 
about man ? 

A. That he was lost and ruined, under the curse and 
wrath of God, and doomed to an endless hell. 

3. Q. How have they said he came to be so ? 
A. As the result of Adam's sin. 

4. Q. How? 

A. They have said God arranged things so that the 
whole race is born depraved and lost. 

5. Q. What is the story? 

A. The story of Adam and Eve, created perfect and 
placed in Eden. When tempted by Satan, they fell ; 
and so all their children are born fallen and wicked. 

6. Q. What have they taught that God did ? 

A. As the years went by, he chose one little 
people to teach and train into preparation for the 
coming of his Son, who was to be the Saviour of those 
who accepted him. 

7. Q. What then ? 

A. All the rest of the world was left in darkness and 
death for 4,000 years. 



4 8 

8. Q. Then what ? 

A. He sent his Son, the second person of the trin- 
ity, to be born of a virgin, to suffer and die. 

9. Q. What are some of the other "Orthodox" 

teachings ? 

A. A miraculous and infallible revelation ; that Jesus 
was God ; that the Church was made up of those only 
who accepted their teachings; that those who did 
accept them went to heaven at death, and those wh Q 
did not went to hell. 

10. Q. Which is the most important of these doc- 
trines ? 

A. The Fall of Man; for, but for that, the rest 
would never have existed. 

11. Q. What do we believe to-day as to these 

things ? 

A. We do not believe only, we know that there 

never was any fall of man. 

12. Q. What, then, becomes of the rest of these 
doctrines ? 

A. There is no need of them. 

13. Q. Did the early Jews believe them ? 

A. No : they borrowed the Eden story from the Per- 
sians ; and they have never believed in any of the 
others, except that the Old Testament was a revelation. 

14. Q. Did Jesus himself believe them ? 
A. No : he never taught any of them. 

15. Q. Did he not say that God was his father? 

A. Yes ; and he also said that God was the father of 
all men. 



49 

1 6. Q. What do we now know about man ? 

A. That he has developed from lower forms of life ; 
has been on earth 200,000 or 300,000 years; and has 
never fallen. 

17. Q. Does he need to be saved, then ? 

A. No : not in the sense that he is under God's 
wrath and is doomed to hell. 

18. Q. What does he need ? 

A. He needs to be educated and trained, taught 
how to live. 

19. Q. Is there no hell, then ? 

A. Only the hell of suffering, in this world or any 
other, that is caused by doing wrong. 

20. Q. What is there, then, to be saved from ? 
A. Ignorance and passion and selfishness. 

2i. Q. Will this lead us to heaven ? 

A. Being delivered from these will be heaven. 

22. Q. Can a wicked person enter heaven? 

A. No : no more than a broken piano can make 
music. 

23. Q. Is heaven a place, then ? 

A. There may be many places called heaven ; but 
essentially it is in the soul. Being in a fine house 
does not make a miserable child happy. 

24. Q. What is salvation, then ? 
A. It is right character. 

25. Q. But if one has been leading a wrong life, 
what should he do ? 

A. Stop doing wrong and begin to do right. 



5° 

26. Q. Will God forgive our wrong-doing ? 
A. In one sense, yes ; in another, no. 

27. Q. How is this ? 

A. We may become reconciled to God, but that does 
not wipe out the results of our wrong actions ? 

28. Q. What can we do about that ? 

A. So far as possible, we should repair the wrong we 
have done. 

29. Q. Why? 

A. Because, if I have injured another, asking God 
to forgive me is not enough. I must, if I can, undo 
the wrong. 

30. Q. Can one be saved alone ? 
A. No. 

31. Q. Why not? 

A. Because the welfare and happiness of one de- 
pend on the welfare and happiness of all. 

32. Q. How so? 

A. One who loves his fellow-men can never be per- 
fectly happy so long as evil and suffering exist. 



VIII. 

CHURCH. 

i. Q. What is the Church ? 

A. It is the Greek eKKX^o-ta, a congregation. 

2. Q. How old is the Church ? 

A. It was organized immediately after the death of 
Jesus. 

3. Q. Did the Jews have anything like churches ? 

A. Yes : the synagogues. There was one in every 
town; and, in the large cities, many of them. 

4. Q. What did they do in them ? 
A. They read and explained the law. 

5. Q. Are they related in any way to the churches? 
A. Yes : the churches were copied from them, and 

but for them might not have existed. 

6. Q. What were the churches ? 

A. Voluntary associations of men and women to 
study, teach, and practise Christianity. 

7. Q. Were there at first any bishops, or rulers? 

A. No : only the apostles were naturally looked up 
to and followed. 

8. Q. How did the churches grow and change ? 

A. As they multiplied, they naturally fell into groups 
with overseers, who came to be called presbyters, or 
elders, and then bishops. 



9- Q. What does bishop mean ? 
A. Only an overseer. 

10. Q. How did the Catholic Church rise ? 

A. After the Roman empire became Christian, the 
bishops of Rome (the capital) naturally had more 
power than the others. 

ii. Q. When did the Roman empire become Chris- 
tian ? 

A. Early in the fourth century, under the Emperor 
Constantine. 

12. Q. Was he a good man ? 
A. No. 

13. Q. Why, then, did he call himself a Christian ? 
A. So many of his subjects had become Christians 

that it was policy for him to do so. 

14. Q. How far did the Romish Church spread ? 
A. Nearly over the civilized world. 

I S- Q- Who was the head of the Church ? 

A. The Pope, from a Latin word meaning Father. 

16. Q. Did the Church keep to the simple life and 
teaching of Jesus ? 

A. No : it became a great empire, with the Pope as 
prince. He claimed to be God's vicegerent on earth. 

17. Q. Were people free to think and study? 

A. No : all heretics were persecuted and punished. 

iS. Q. Who was a heretic? 

A. Any one who refused to accept any of the Church's 
leaching. 

19. Q. How long did the Church thus rule Europe ? 
A. Until the sixteenth century. 



53 

20. Q. What happened then ? 

A. What is called the Reformation. 

21. Q. Who led in this? 
A. A monk named Luther. 

22. Q. What was the result ? 

A. A large falling away from the Catholic Church, 
and the growth of the many sects called Protestant. 

23. Q. Why were they called Protestants ? 

A. Because at the Second Diet of Spire the mi- 
nority, in behalf cf religious liberty, protested against 
the action of the majority. 

24. Q. What are the principal Protestant Churches ? 
A. Lutherans in Germany, the Church of England 

in England, Presbyterians in Scotland and America, the 
Methodists, the Congregationalists, and many others. 

25. Q. What other name have all these Churches? 
A. They are called " Orthodox." 

26. Q. What does "Orthodox" mean ? 

A. It is from a Greek word (6pQ68o$o<;), and means 
the true doctrine. 

27. Q. What are others called ? 
A. Heretics. 

28. Q. What does this mean ? 

A. It is from a Greek word, and means the act of 
choosing. So a heretic is one who thinks freely, — 
chooses his belief. 

29. Q. Are we Unitarians heretics ? 

A. Yes, from the point of view of the " Orthodox." 
But we believe we are orthodox, in the true meaning of 
the word, because we think we hold ^nd teach the true 
doctrine. 



54 

3 0. Q. How do the orthodox churches differ among 
themselves ? 

A. Chiefly as to ceremonies and forms of govern- 
ment. 

31. Q. What ceremonies and forms of government 
may Unitarians have ? 

A. Any they please. Their forms of church govern- 
ment, however, are generally congregational or dem- 
ocratic. 

32. Q. How old is Unitarianism ? 

A. The Jews were Unitarian. So were Jesus and 
the apostles. 

33. Q. What do we mean by that ? 

A. That they believed in the unity of God, and not 
in the trinity. We do not mean that they held all our 
present beliefs. 

34. Q. How old is modern Unitarianism ? 

A. There were many Unitarians at the time of the 
Reformation. In Hungary there has been a Unitarian 
church ever since that time. 

35. Q. When did the most modern movement of 
Unitarianism begin ? 

A. In England and America, late in the eighteenth 
century. 

36. Q. Who was the first Unitarian preacher in 
England ? 

A. Rev. Dr. Lindsey. Milton, Newton, Locke, and 
Priestley were Unitarians. 

37. Q. Who was the first Unitarian in America ? 

A. Rev. Dr. James Freeman, of King's Chapel. 
Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and others, perhaps in- 
cluding Washington, were practically Unitarians. 



55 

38. Q. Who have been our most famous leaders in 
this country ? 

A. Channing and Parker. 

39. Q. What is the fundamental principle of Uni- 
tarianism ? 

A. Freedom to study and believe what seems rea- 
sonable. 

40. Q. What are our principal beliefs ? 

A. In the oneness of God as opposed to the trinity, 
in his perfect goodness, in the ascent of man as op- 
posed to the fall, in the humanity of Jesus as opposed 
to his deity, in the Bible as a natural as opposed to a 
supernatural book, in man's salvation through charac- 
ter as opposed to salvation by creed or sacrament, in 
the final salvation of all men by their being led to see 
and obey the truth as opposed to an endless hell. 

4_r. Q. Ought people to belong to the Church ? 

A. Yes, to the best Church known, because the 
Church is an organization to help people to find and 
live out the truth. 

42. Q. Is there any one true Church ? 

A. No : that Church is the best which finds and 
practises the most truth. 

43. Q. Why are we Unitarians ? 

A. Because Unitarian doctrines seem to us most 
nearly true, and because we have freedom to study 
and find new truth. 

44. Q. Is it wrong to leave the Unitarian Church 
for the older Churches ? 

A. We believe it is. 



56 

45- & Why? 

A. Because it is not following God, who is leading 
the world on to new and higher truth. 

46. Q. Is not the majority more likely to be right ? 
A. No : in education, in science, in philanthropy, it 

is always the few who lead ; as in an army the van- 
guard is always smaller than the main body. 

47. Q. What, then, should we chiefly care for? 

A. To have the most truth, and help to lead and lift 
the world. Jesus and all the great leaders of the past 
were in the minority. 



IX. 

DUTY. 

i. Q. What is duty? 

A. It is what one owes or ought to do. 

2. Q. What ought one to do ? 

A. All that is right, and nothing that is wrong. 

3. Q. What does right mean ? 

A. That which is according to an accepted rule or 
standard ? 

4. Q. What is this rule or standard ? 

A. There have been a good many arbitrary and 
mistaken ones. 

5. Q. What are some of these ? 

A. The Church of Rome says her doctrines ; the 
Protestants say the Bible. Different peoples and dif- 
ferent stages of civilization have had different ideas. 

6. Q. Give another illustration. 

A. Sometimes society has its notions of what is 
proper, and will forgive real wrongs sooner than dis- 
regard of its rules. 

7. Q. Is there a real rule ? 
A. Yes. 

8. Q. What is it ? 

A. It is found in the word " life." 



58 

9. Q. How so ? 

A. That which conduces to the life arc! well-being 
of mankind is right. 

10. Q. What is wrong, then? 

A. That which injures and tends to destroy well- 
being and life. 

ii. Q. What have people agreed to call vices and 
wrongs ? 

A. Those things which they have learned by experi- 
ence to think injurious. 

12. Q. Have they always had correct ideas of what 
was right and wrong? 

A. No : the principle has always been the same ; 
but men's ideas about it have not. 

13. Q. Are the same actions always right or always 
wrong ? 

A. No : because circumstances may change the 
effect of them. 

14. Q. How have people found out what was right 
and wrong? 

A. By experience ; just as they have discovered 
what is good to eat and what is poison. 

15. Q. Is right in accordance with the will of God? 
A. Always. 

16. Q. Does that will make right ? 

A. No : right is eternal. No power can change it. 

17. Q. Are all God's laws right ? 

A. Yes ; for they are the conditions of life and well- 
being. 

18. Q. What is the penalty of wrong? 
A. Suffering and death. 



59 

19. Q. Could God change this ? 

A. No : no more than he could make a person sick 
and well at the same time. 

20. Q. Did the world need a supernatural revela- 
tion to teach it what was right ? 

A. No : it learned by experience. 

21. Q. Have nations outside of the Hebrew and 
Christian known the right ? 

A. Yes : equally civilized people have had very 
much the same ideas of right and wrong. 

22. Q. What does this mean ? 

A. It means that they have had about the same ex- 
periences and so have learned about the same things. 

23. Q. Does it ever pay to do wrong ? 
A. No: it is always foolish. 

24. Q. Why do people, then, do wrong? 

A. Sometimes from ignorance ; sometimes under 
the influence of passion, such as hatred or envy ; some- 
times for what promises a present pleasure and in spite 
of after consequences. 

2 5- Q- Why ought I to do right toward others? 
A. Because I have no right to injure them. 

26. Q. Ought I to do right for my own sake ? 

A. Yes : if I care for well-being and life ; and, be- 
sides, one can never do a wrong to himself without 
injuring somebody else. 

27. Q. Is there any necessary wrong in the world? 
A. No : except in the sense that it is the necessary 

result of ignorance, passion, and selfishness. 



6o 

28. Q. How can the world then get rid of wrong? 
A. By learning what is right, and doing it. 

29. Q. Is it enough to teach people whatls right ? 
A. No : they must learn to love it. 

30. Q. Why? 

A. Because love never willingly injures any one. 

31. Q. Is love alone enough? 

A. No : one must know the way and then love to 
walk in it. So knowledge and love both are needed. 



X. 

DEATH AND AFTER. 

i. Q. What is death ? 

A. It is the ceasing of our bodily life. 

2. Q. Is it a punishment for sin ? 

A. No : it existed among the lower animals before 
there were any men to do wrong. 

3. Q. Why did it come into the world ? 

A. It is the law of all organized creatures that they 
must die as well as be born. 

4. Q. Is it an evil ? 

A. No : as things are in this world, it would be 
much worse if there were no death. 

5. Q. Does it take away from the world's happiness ? 
A. No : there is much more happiness with it. 

6. Q. How is this ? 

A. If there were no death, the world would soon be 
crowded with all sorts of creatures as well as with men. 

7. Q. Then what ? 

A. No more could be born, and so no more could 
experience the joy of living. Life is like a feast. If 
the first tableful sat there forever, no more could come. 

8. Q. What makes people dread death ? 

A. Largely the old teachings about the next world. 

9. Q. What else ? 

A. The sickness and pain connected with it. 



62 

ic. Q. Anything else ? 

A. Yes : the separation from friends. 

ii. Q. Are these any real par: of dying? 

A. Xo : the fears of the future are chiefly imaginary. 
The pain and illness need not exist when people learn 
to live rightly : and the separation is only for a little 
while. 

12. Q. What ought death, then, to be? 

A. A happy rebirth into another life when through 
with this. 

13 . Q. Ought so many people to die so soon ? 

A. No: it is because we do not know or keep the 
laws of health. 

14. Q. Can we hope that si much illness., pain, and 
early dying may be outgrown I 

A. We may. 

15. Q. Then what will dying be ? 

4. Like o-oino- to sleep when one has grown tired. 

16. Q. Is death the end ? 

A. No : we believe it is only another kind of birth. 

17. Q. Does death change one's character? 
A. Xo : no more than a night's sleep does. 

iS. Q. Are there special places called heaven and 

hell? 

A. Xo : each soul is happy or unhappy according to 

A.iracter. 

19. Q. Can one find happiness after death except 

by being and doing right ? 

4. Xo : this is the only way. 



63 

20. Q. Where do those who die, go ? 
A. Probably not far away. 

21. Q. Is there some special planet for their home? 
A. Probably not. The spiritual world may be very 

near us ; and perhaps its inhabitants can go from place 
to place as duty or pleasure lead. 

22. Q. Do spirits have forms or bodies ? 

A. Probably : only of a kind that we know little or 
nothing of as yet. 

23. Q. Why do we not know ? 

A. Knowledge is limited by experience ; and as yet 
we have had no experience to teach us these things. 

24. Q. What do these spiritual beings do ? 

A. Study and live their own lives as we do here. 
They may also serve, influence, and help us in many 
ways, though we do not see them. 

25. Q. Ought we to dread dying, then ? 

A. No : after we have learned what earth has to teach 
us, we ought to anticipate going on and up to this 
higher life. 

26. Q. Whom shall we find there ? 

A. All the great and noble of all past ages. Also, 
our own loved ones who have gone. 

27. Q. Death, then, is not a sign of God's anger 
with us? 

A. No : it is one of God's gifts to his children. 

28. Q. Have we, then, nothing to fear in dying ? 

A. Only the natural consequences of our actions, the 
same as here. 



64 

29. Q. Will it be better with some when they die 
than with others ? 

A. Yes : it will be best for those who have lived 
best here. 

30. Q. Why? 

A. Just as it is best, on going out into life, for that 
boy or girl who has made the best preparation for it. 

31. Q. What, then, is the chief end of man ? 

A. To learn to live rightly ; for this means good in 
this world and in all worlds. 



BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 



RELIGION. 



Clodd's "Childhood of Religions." 
Everett's "Religions before Christianity." 
Knappert's " The Religion of Israel." 
Spencer's " Principles of Sociology," Vol. I. 
Lang's "Myth, Ritual, and Religion." 
Max Muller's " Origin and Growth of Religion." 
Clarke's " Ten Great Religions." 
Clarke's " Manual of Unitarian Belief." 
Gannett's " The Chosen Nation." 
Arnold's " Literature and Dogma." 
Toy's " History of the Religion of Israel." 
Parker's "Discourse of Religion." 
Armstrong's "Outline Lessons in Religion." 

GOD. 

Clodd's " Childhood of the World." 

Fiske's "The Idea of God." 

Muller's "Origin and Growth of Religion." 

Abbot's " Scientific Theism." 

Savage's " Belief in God." 

CALTHROP's "The Fulness of God," in vol. "Show us the 

Father." 
Arnold's " God and the Bible." 

MAN. 

Clodd's " Childhood of the World." 
Peschel's " The Races of Man." 
Fiske's "The Destiny of Man." 
Lubbock's " Antiquity of Man." 
Hittel's " History of Culture." 
Lesley's " Man's Origin and Destiny." 



66 

Tylor's " Primitive Culture." 
Powell's " Our Heredity from God." 
Morgan's "Ancient Society." 

BIBLE. ' 

Sunderland's " What is the Bible ? " 

Chadwick's "The Bible of To-day." 

Davidson's " Introduction." 

Smith's " Bible in the Jewish Church." 

Carpenter's " The Synoptic Gospels." 

Oort and IIookyas's "Bible for Learners." 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. Gospe)s. 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. Bible. 

Heber Newton's " Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible.' 

Savage's " Beliefs about the Bible." 

Hall's " First Lessons on the Bible." 

Carpenter's " Life in Palestine." 

JESUS. 

Chadwick's "The Man Jesus." 
Clodd's " Jesus of Nazareth." 
Brown's " Life of Jesus." 
Keim's "Jesus of Nazara." 
Renan's " Life of Jesus." 
Strauss's " New Life of Jesus." 
Savage's " Talks about Jesus." 
Gannett's "The Childhood of Jesus." 
Crooker's "Jesus Brought Back." 
Hughes's " Manliness of Jesus." 

CHURCH. 

Allen's " Christian History." 
Hall's " Orthodoxy and Heresy." 

" The Evolution of Christianity." 

Martineau's " Seat of Authority in Religion." 
Bartol's "Church and Congregation." 

SALVATION. 

Jesus, in all his Gospel teachings. 
Clarke's " Self-culture." 



67 

Channing's " Perfect Life." 
Hedge's " Ways of the Spirit." 
Emerson's " Conduct of Life." 

EVIL AND DEVIL. 

Conway's " Demonology and Devil-lore." 
Dorman's "Origin of Primitive Superstitions." 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. Devil. 

DUTY. 
Spencer's " Data of Ethics." 
Lecky's " History of European Morals." 
Marcus Aurelius. 
Epictetus. 
Seneca. 

Smiles's Works. 

Mrs. Wells's " Rights and Duties." 
Dole's "The Citizen and the Neighbor." 
Savage's " Morals of Evolution." 
Everett's " Poetry, Comedy and Duty." 

DEATH AND AFTER. 

Alger's '• History of the Doctrine of a Future Life." 
Fiske's " Unseen World." 4 

Sears's " Athanasia,"/«jj-/>//. 



